Our Tour of Norway, Part 2

Since I began keeping this online journal of our experiences in Norway, I have met a few other Americans living in Norway through the internet. Keera is from L.A. but has been living in Bergen for the past 25 years or so. (Here is her blog: http://home.online.no/~kafox/blogfiles/ ) She graciously offered to give us a guided tour of Bergen--we only had 4 hours on Saturday morning to spend in the city, so it was wonderful to be able to see so much in such a short amount of time with no fear of getting lost! Keera was able to tell us about the city's history--lots of fires, the plague and a munitions boat explosion, oh my! The top picture is of Bryggen, the old Hanseatic wharf in Bergen. The next photo is of the churchyard at St. Mary's--I loved that crazy, gnarled old tree! The buildings in Bergen are really beautiful and colorful and I loved walking up and down the streets and alleys. We took a ride up the incredibly steep Funicular to the top of one of the seven mountains surrounding the city. It was gorgeous up there, wow, what a view! We also got a chance to stop by the famous fish market and sample some different caviars and smoked salmons.

We planned to take the 2:50 Flamsbana train ride, so we had to hurry back to the car for the next leg of the journey. Unfortunately, there was some confusion as to where to catch the Flamsbana--we thought we were supposed to go to Voss, a 2 hour drive from Bergen. We left Bergen by 12:20, so we should have been fine...BUT, the Flamsbana does not leave from Voss, it leaves from Flam, which is about 2 1/2 hours from Bergen. We have a TomTom, and when we programmed Flam into it, we could see that it was very unlikely that we would make it to the train on time. Kevin does enjoy a challenge, though, so off we sped! We could tell on the TomTom that we were making good time, and our projected ETA was getting earlier and earlier, and for a few moments, we really believed we would make it. We emerged from a tunnel to see the town of Flam below us in the valley, with 2 minutes left. We could see the train station and the train--it hadn't departed yet! Kevin drove like a maniac, over a one way bridge going the wrong way, and Michelle and I leapt out of the still moving car and ran to the conductor to purchase last minute tickets....as the train pulled away. Sigh. We had 3 hours to kill before the next train, but sadly, there is not much going on in Flam in March. During peak tourist season, I'm sure it is a great place to be, but in March, not so much. There was one cafeteria open, so we ate sandwiches and groused about how close we had come to making the first train.

Happily, the wait was worth it--the views from the train were spectacular! We bounced around from the left side to the right side, soaking up all the amazing views. The Flambana zig zags from the valley to the top of a mountain, and it is incredible! The train stopped at Kjossfossen so Kevin and I took the opportunity for a photo together--I'm not sure why he's making a Donald Trump face in the picture, though! The next photo is of Kevin, Michelle and Vera, very happy to have an entire train car all to themselves! There are definitely perks to visiting all the tourist traps during the off season! The train stops at Myrdal, a remote mountain station which can't be reached by road, and then goes back to Flam. The whole ride took about an hour and forty minutes, and I can't wait to do it again the next time we have more visitors from the U.S.!

The drive home to Gjovik was really long, but we were lucky enough to come upon this gorgous mountain lake at dusk and take a picture. The rest of the ride was dark and we had to cross yet another treacherous, snowy mountain before we finally could crawl in to bed...knowing that the next day, we would rise bright and early again to drive to Oslo and see some museums!